9 Mar
Turning the Christmas Lights Off
Five years ago a friend emailed me a video of Carson William’s Christmas lights synchronized to music. Man was I hooked! Our kids we’re born that year and I bought our first light controller.
We had half a dozen songs that first year and 16 channels of animation. Immediately we became the cool house on the block. I got to know strangers from all over town who came to watch the show. This past Christmas (2008) we had 64 channels running a show that was around 30 minutes long. Hundreds of people came to visit during December and the kids and I were outside every night handing out candy canes to them in their cars.
Last week I sold all the light controllers to help get our ball rolling.
Ouch! Definitely the hardest thing so far and it won’t even really be painful for 9 more months. The animated lights started as my hobby and programming the song sequences came easily to me. Giving up the hardware twinged a bit, but, I thought, I’ll be able to buy twice as many when we’re out of debt. The Wife and I are committed, arm-in-arm, yellow-brick-road to getting this thing done…
In the middle of the night, however, a different perspective occurred to me.
Come the weekend after Thanksgiving this year when my neighbors are hanging their lights, two little faces are going to turn up at me expectantly and I’m going to have to explain why we won’t be doing the show this year.
Thank God it’s a long way off. I’m not ready for that conversation today.
Posted by Gramps on 03/09/09 at 4:40 pm
Like we say in our system……it’s “one day at a time” and today you don’t have to have that conversation….what you have is the needed cash to move you forward on your yellow-brick-road. Who is to say what sort of conversation you will be having come Thanksgiving…..History shows it will be loving and current actions show it will be WISE! What a gift to share with the girls.
Congratulations on being willing to “let go absolutely”…..I promise…. you will not regret it!
Love, Gramps…
Posted by Gramps on 03/09/09 at 4:51 pm
A thought………………..could you make a small business out of installing “Holiday Light Shows” for people in the fancy neighborhoods?…….It might generate a new income stream and it would keep your fingers in the fun stuff.
Rather quickly you could be back to doing your own systems once you’ve reached your financial goals. With the commitment I see from all of you…..it could be a faster turn-around than you might have thought… Yea!!!!!
Posted by Melinda on 03/09/09 at 8:24 pm
Kids can adapt easier than adults. Just tell them that you are doing something different. Take them Christmas Caroling, roast marshmallows and make smores, make popcorn chains for the tree. Its really about family time, not the things. I’m Christian so for us it’s about sharing Christ with our family and celebrate that we are a family. God shared Christ with us, so we share our heart with those who we love, and hopefully those that we don’t know.
**My kids love trying to make paper snowflakes to decorate the house with***
Posted by the Dad on 03/11/09 at 1:21 pm
Good points. If they are really sad about not having the light show I’m leaning towards having them stand in the garage flipping light-switches in time with the music instead. What do you think?
Posted by Patrick on 03/19/09 at 3:36 am
It’s a tough step to take, but one that has a larger importance in the long run. I like the idea of hiring your programming skills out to people in your neighborhood. You may be able to make a few extra bucks that way, which can help out with your debt snowball and make for a little nicer Christmas.
Posted by Shannon on 03/25/09 at 5:05 pm
It’s cool that you “shared” the gift of those lights with another family. Maybe this year, you guys could do something inexpensive like luminaries and a boombox with caroling…
Posted by Climbing Out » Blog Archive » A Debtless Christmas on 12/30/09 at 12:40 pm
[...] turning the Christmas lights off? Well, that played out too. The kids totally got it. We are getting out of debt and daddy sold the [...]